Seattle

We left Portland on Saturday morning, stopped off for a couple hours to watch some drag racing at Portland International Raceway, we got parking in the pits !!! international guest, what we saw was some good racing.
We carried on up the I-5 stopping off at Washington's state capital, Olympia, had a look through their Government Building...bigger & flasher than our Beehive, marble floors & walls very grand.
Then went to Olympias farmers market & had a walk around their waterfront boardwalk, very relaxing.
We headed for Seattle, which turned out to be a very beautiful city, very much like NZ, very green, warm and open spaces.

I had arranged to meet a hot rodding friend from Seattle Tom Profit, who I met last year when he was visiting NZ. Tom & his wife Vivian live in Redmond, they have a lovely place hidden away in the bush, Tom has a collection of Hot Rods which we perused over a glass of wine.....
Later on they took us for a drive to a local gathering of cars in a neighbouring town then to a drive in" burger bar...pretty cool.

On Sunday morning we meet up with Tom & he took us to a small Hot Rod display in a another neighbouring town. Later in the afternoon we went downtown Seattle where we went to the famous Pike Place Markets, another glorious day here, so we decided to take a float plane flight over Seattle city, again another great experience.

We ended the day by going out for diner with Tom & Vivian to a local restaurant, then back to their place where they taught us to play cribbage..so far we love Seattle.

Love D & B xxx

Whats happening back in NZ

Hiya! When you sent the link to your site you asked me to be a contributor :) So here is what is happening back in good ole En Zed...your grand-girls are growing! Jaimee will be a month old tomorrow, and only a month and 6 days till Libby turns 3! So here are a couple of photos of your grandbabies...glad you are having a great time and missing all the terrible rain we've got - make the most of it. We miss you!

Portland

Well not much to say about this place, the city is divided by a river, heaps of bridges & old "Draw Bridge". Done some "retail therapy", apart from that, this city doesn't impress us at all...heaps of homeless & beggars around.

Love D & B xxx

Oregon

We left Grants Pass bright and early heading towards Portland Oregon, we decided to head towards the coast again & take the leisurely route up the old 101. The drive out to the coast was about 60 miles, it was very scenic, following a river most of the way, pictures enclosed, beautiful scenery, in some places the river wasn't moving, very glassy. We even sighted our first wild elk grazing under the trees....took a couple of pics with our new tele lens.

We stopped at one of the national parks, sand dunes on one side & a lake on the other, spoke with one of the rangers he said there were 400 camps site in this park...so rather large.

Well the coast road may have been beautiful.....but all we got was fog, saw nothing for about 70 miles...very disappointing.

We headed inland to a place called McMinnville, where their is a Air Museum which has the "Spruce Goose" on display....that wasn't a disappointment... a huge place, Brenda even got some history lessons by the volunteers who are retired fighter pilots !!!!

They have a vast array of war planes as well as the Spruce Goose on display.

By the way the temperature still in the 90s today !!!!!

We made to Portland, hopefully staying for a couple of days.

Love

D & B xxxx

Bye Bye Convertible

Day started off well - we drove through the Giant Redwood Forest, then back to the coast.

Daryl took over the driving in Eureka and a little way up the coast. We stopped for lunch in a small town - thought we stop at a local diner - it was a mistake the food was bloody awful. Set off again & saw signs for the largest herd of Elk but missed the turn off and decided to do a u-turn to go back to see the Elk.....

You guessed it, the inevitable happened. Everyone's okay - the guy we hit was a bloody lawyer. Fortunately, we found the nicest cop this side of LA!! Very helpful - sorted us out, no charges and sent us on our way then went off to deal with Mr Lawyer. Our poor convertible suffered the consequences and we had to make a dash for the nearest Budget Rental yard to replace her, which was over 100 miles away. We had to change because beside the missing headlight, panel damage, the battery was leaking acid - we made it OK. The guys at Budget were so obliging, they stayed back and waited for us to arrive after hours and confirmed we were all covered!!

Found another fantastic lodging right on the riverside with the restaurant in photo across the road - great food, great place. The temperature outside restaurant was 35 degrees at 7pm - and had started cooling down - a 9pm it was still 30! Glad they have air conditioning in room.

So we are now in Oregon, in a place called Grant's Pass. Lets see what tomorrow brings.....

LOL
D & B
XXXX

Heading North

Having tried to drive the wrong way up a one way street last night, we packed up and went downtown to do some last minute shopping which became last hours shopping and only left at lunch time when the metre ran out for the second time! Dinner at Hardrock last night and went back today to buy some clothes... Off up the coast road which was so windy that we diverted back in land to the 101 and continued up to Garberville which is around 200 miles north. About 95 (36) degrees today so had a swim tonight, after wine & cheese hours which is complimentary with the room. In the giant Redwood forest and will explore this in the morning as we head towards Oregon.

Happy Birthday Grace, Big 25?

Love D & B

XXX

San Francisco

Our arrival in San Francisco was met with the sudden reality change of cold weather - it was freezing after the heat we have had - very similar to home although the day was clear.

Stopped for some great Clam chowder down at the wharf and then went on tour in a stretched Model A of the area including land marks & famous spots, where the rich live, under the Golden Gate Bridge and a bit of history on the area - excellent tour.

Finally bought a new camera and lenses so we can try this out over the rest of our trip.

Short visit - we are leaving today - too cold for US!!!!!

D & B

P.S. Keep those comments coming as we love to hear from you guys too.